LONDON – A British man has pleaded guilty for threatening to kill 200 people in a Facebook posting that caused thousands of Tennessee children to stay home from school.

Reece Elliott, 24, from South Shields, in northeast England, was charged in February with making malicious comments.

The online posting threatening gun violence was made anonymously on a memorial page set up for a Tennessee student who died in October. The threat led to 2,900 children missing class in Warren County, Tennessee, amid heightened tensions following the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, which saw 26 people killed.

Elliott, who prosecutors said was trying to see what reaction his posts would provoke, pleaded guilty Friday at Newcastle Crown Court. He will be sentenced at a later date.